


it burns

by the_tenerife_sea



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death Fix, Extremis Tony Stark, Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Tony Stark Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 23:05:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_tenerife_sea/pseuds/the_tenerife_sea
Summary: It’s a shitty but logical hypothesis, if you squint and tilt your head slightly to the left.But he has to try.____Or, a short and sweet Endgame fix-it (with spoilers, obviously).





	it burns

**Author's Note:**

> I'm coping.

It’s a shitty but logical hypothesis, if you squint and tilt your head slightly to the left.

But he has to try.

 

———

 

Tony keeps the vials in a locked box under a lone worktable in the corner of the lab at the Avengers Compound. He knows exactly where it is and he’s not going to linger any longer than he has to. The worktable is empty with the exception of a dust bunny clad calculus book, but Tony focuses on his target and doesn’t look back when he makes his exit.

He usually tries not to think about the box’s contents, as they almost killed his wife on Christmas Eve in 2013, but now he needs every possible resource available to him to make it out of this alive. To get the kid back. To bring half the universe back. To return home safely to his wife and daughter.

They had prepared the gauntlet already, painted red, because why not, and his fingers have been tingling ever since. They haven’t talked about who’s wielding the stones, but there’s something in Tony’s chest, similar to the feeling of shrapnel running rampant through his heart, telling him it has to be _him._

Yes, he was told what Thanos looked like after using, then subsequentially destroying, the infinity stones. The team had told him that Thanos, one of the most powerful beings in the universe, was covered in burns from the amount of energy the stones gave off, that Thanos nearly killed himself using them the second time around.

Tony is only human, fragile, and most certainly not an all-powerful titan. He won’t survive.

A large part of him is ready to accept that he’s going to die today. For the universe. For his family.

But another part of him stops short when the thought of his girls crosses his mind. His _family_. He can’t leave them. He doesn’t _want_ to leave them.

So he hefts the box onto his bedside table, smashing the lock mechanism with a hammer because he never bothered to remember the combination, and opens it.

Inside are six vials. Three filled with Extremis, three filled with the antidote for Extremis. He takes out two of the vials, then closes the box.

He pulls up his left sleeve and uncaps the vial he had carefully wrapped in orange colored electrical tape a decade prior, revealing a thin, daunting needle. He sticks it in his arm before he can overthink the consequences. The antidote is in the second, tapeless vial sitting right next to him. If he starts feeling too hot, he’ll inject himself with the antidote before things can go south.

Heat spreads through his right arm immediately, but it’s not painful. It almost feels...kind of nice.

Not five seconds later, the heat turns into flames.

He gasps, collapsing onto his knees. He can feel the fire licking at his insides, feel the exact path Extremis is mapping through his veins. It hurts like hell, but he’s handling it. He feels stable. Well, mostly stable. Stable enough.

Sweat drips off of his nose and he blinks hazily. His skin is mottled and glowing orange where he injected himself. The sight makes unpleasant memories resurface without warning, Killian’s voice echoing in his head, and he closes his eyes, taking a labored breath. He looks over to where the second vial is sitting within his reach, reassuring himself.

He sits, curled up on the floor and burning, for hours.

But the second vial remains untouched.

When he finds the strength to stand, he doesn’t feel much different at first, but he takes a small breath and thinks, _oh_.

 _I forgot what it’s like to have full lung capacity_.

He taps his sternum, currently nanotech and arc reactor free, and breathes again.

 

———

 

Bruce uses the stones to reverse the snap.

It makes sense, Bruce is the most like Thanos now that he and Hulk share one body equally, but something still isn’t right. Tony can’t explain it, but it’s all too _easy_.

And he’s right.

It was too easy.

 

———

 

It’s strange, knowing that you should be feeling the sensation of heat, but not feeling anything at all.

Tony emerges from the rubble, his glowing hands helping him dig and melt his way out, but the heat fades by the time his armor reforms around him and he reaches for Steve.

The battle is overwhelming. Everyone is here. Pepper is here. _Peter_ is here. Tony grips his kid’s shoulders and tucks his chin against his neck, feeling a warmth in his chest that has nothing to do with Extremis.

When Strange gives him the final sign, he knows what he has to do.

He just hopes his stupid fail-safe plan works.

He snaps his fingers, and the world turns white.

 

———

 

He’s standing on the edge of the battlefield, the destroyed Avengers Compound behind him. It’s just him here.

Someone yells his name. He turns towards the voice. There’s a group of people gathered in the distance.

It’s them. The team, Pepper, Peter, Morgan. They’re all here.

 _I don’t know if it worked,_ he thinks. _And I will never know now, because I am dead._

But Peter steps forward and looks up at him, a small smile on his young face. “We won, Mr. Stark,” he says.

The world turns white again.

 

———

 

Tony blinks. Peter is there.

“We won,” Peter is saying, but it sounds like he’s crying. He sounds just like he did on Titan, and Tony wants to hug him again, anything for him to stop sounding like _that_. “Tony,” Peter’s voice breaks. "I'm sorry." 

 _For what?_ Tony thinks frantically.  _Pete, no._ His lips won't form the words he wants to say.

Then Pepper is there, telling him they’re going to be okay, that he can rest now, and that sounds nice, but--

He doesn’t _want to_.

He gasps, and his body glows.

People around him are shouting, but it’s deafened by the noise of his own screams. It’s like he just injected about a thousand more vials of Extremis into his veins. He can feel the skin on the right side of his body rebuilding itself, cell by cell. It burns. It burns and it burns, it won’t stop--

Then it’s over.

Tony opens his eyes. Pepper, Peter, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Clint -- jeez, there are a lot of people here -- are all hovering over him.

“If somebody kissed me, I really hope it was Pepper,” he says, and Pepper promptly smacks him upside the head.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are nice. You can also yell at me on [tumblr](http://werewolvesau.tumblr.com).


End file.
